Women's ice hockey in Great Britain

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Women's Ice Hockey in Great Britain is administered by the English and Scottish Ice Hockey Associations. It is one of the fastest growing areas of the game. A national team existed as early as the 1930's, when teams from England participated in contests versus France.

The British Women's Leagues were formed with five teams in 1984. The founder members of the league were:

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In England and Wales, 28 teams play in the British Women's Leagues. The top 10 teams in the country play in the Premier League, while the remaining 18 teams play in a regionalised Division One, equally divided into North, Midlands and South.

In the Premier Division, the sides play each other, one home, once away, in a dual round robin format, with the team ranked highest being declared champion of the league. In Division 1, teams are seeded according to their previous season's performance. The top three seeded teams, and the bottom three teams, play each other four times each. The team with the highest points at the end of the season is declared the regional champion.

At the end of the season, the top four Premier sides, and top three Division One sides from each region converge for the 'Trophy Weekend'. The Premier Sides play for the Chairman's Cup, while the Division One sides play for the Division One Trophy.

In addition to the playoffs, there is Promotion and Relegation between the Premier and Division 1 leagues. In 2004/05, this was decided with a Playoff Weekend at Coventry. The Division One sides played first in a one-off game, then the following day the winner of that game played the 10th ranked team in the Premier league, to decide who played in the Premier and Division 1 leagues for the following season.

In 2007-08 season the EIHA introduced women's U16 teams to the league structure. Three teams (Oxford, Streatham and Bracknell) were created in a Southern Division and four teams were created in the women's U16 Northern Division. For 2008-09, Oxford folded and was replaced by Peterborough in the South.

The Women's England League was the first incarnation of the league, starting with 5 teams before moving up to 7 by 1988. An influx of interest from new teams resulted in a complete regionalisation of the sport, a system that lasted two years.

! - Oxford City Rockets declared unofficial champions after beating Streatham in a Regional Playoff by four goals to one. Rockets were never able to play the final against Sunderland (champions of the Northern Division).

After two years of this format, the system switched to the structure that exists to the present day, making it after 15 years, one of the longest lasting formats of any ice hockey league that ever has been in the UK.

The Trophy Weekend, has been spilt into the Bill Britton Memorial Trophy and D1 Trophy. The Memorial Trophy sees 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd in the Premier League, with the Winners playing the final the following day.

Prior to the Memorial Trophy being renamed, it was called the Chairman's Cup.

The D1 Trophy sees the Champion of the North playing the Runner-up of the South, and Champion of the South vs Runner-Up of the North, with the Winners playing the final the following day.

The introduction of the Women's U16 Northern and Southern (season 2007/08) created a third play off final between the winners of each league.

Information on these Playoffs is sketchy, however the following contains most of them. Playoffs were not held in every season due to either teams not wanting to go for promotion to the higher league, or a natural expansion of the Premier League.

England is divided into two regional sides, featuring the best players whom have not been selected for Team Great Britain. The regional sides are a recent addition to assist with the development of the top Women and Girls hockey in the UK. For the purposes of the records shown, only games against other Regional, National or International teams shall be considered.

In addition the conference sections are divided into Senior and Junior (U16) teams.

In total there are three National teams, although Team England has been defunct since 2002. 2006 saw the England team reinstated and an Under 16 England added to the list of National Teams. In August 2006 both teams travelled to Prague for a training camp, followed by a tournament in Plizen which saw the Senior Team play their way to a silver medal.

Team GB re-entered the World of International Hockey, with a European Championship two-leg qualifying match against the Netherlands in Chelmsford. GB battled hard in both games but were defeated by an experienced Dutch side, winning both games by the margin of four goals to two, giving the Dutch an 8-4 aggregate win and a place in the European Championship.

Team GB took part in the 1991 European Championship finishing 9th out of 10 teams. Placed in a very tough Group B, they lost their first three games to Sweden (0-16), Denmark (0-4) and Germany (0-6) before surprising the Czech Republic with a 2-2 draw in their final game. GB finished bottom of their group, and played Holland in the 9th/10th playoff which they won 3-0.

After the break for an Olympic year, GB started again in the newly formed European Championship Pool B. Following an opening loss against Latvia (0-3), GB repeated their performance against the Czech Republic from two years ago, this time with a 1-1 draw. France, dispatched GB easily in the third game by 7 goals to 2, and GB won their first International game in the final match of the tournament with a 1-0 win over the Ukraine. giving GB a respectable 4th placed finish out of 5 teams, with GB only missing a medal by one point.

GB went to Denmark, for the IIHF European Women's Championships Pool B in March 1995, and faced a tough group on paper and proved to be a tough group on ice. GB fell to their worst defeat in 4 years, in the opening game with a 14-1 defeat to Denmark. Slovakia defeated GB 4-1 and in the final group game Holland put seven past the Brits, with only two coming back.

The 7th/8th playoff game saw GB take on the Ukraine, the only side they had beaten in competitive hockey so far. Unfortunately the Ukraine gave a much more solid account of themselves, and skated to a 2-0 victory which saw GB finish 8th out of 8 teams.

A trip to Slovakia was in store for GB in Pool B in 1996. GB started positively with a much better account against Denmark who they had been routed against the previous year falling only to a 5-0 defeat. Unfortunately any hopes of a great comeback were dashed in their 2nd game against the Danes who GB had previously done well against collapsing to a 7-1 defeat. That scoreline was repeated in the final group round game against the Dutch to leave GB adrift at the bottom of their group.

The 7th/8th playoff saw GB take on Kazahstan and for the first time in the tournament, team GB took the game to their opponents in a thrilling encounter. Unfortunately the Asian side was just able to edge ahead and won by the odd goal in 9 leaving GB in 8th out of 8 place and without a win in two years.

Following a re-structure in the World Championships, and the no championship in 1998 due to it being an Olympic year, GB finally came back into the new Pool B Qualifying Group to decide the final spot in Pool B for the following year.

Great Britain opened brightly holding Italy to a 1-1 draw after 40 minutes in the opening game before Italy stepping the game up a gear to skate out to a 4-1 victory however the signs looked good. The next game was against the hapless South Africa, which ended to be a sporting contenst on the opening puck drop with GB running up their highest ever victory at International level with a 22-0 victory.

After a slow start in the final game GB hit the host team Hunary hard with five quick goals in a match that ended up as 9-1 to the Brits, leaving them finish 2nd out of 4 teams.

It was back to Hungary in the year 2000, for the Pool B Qualifying Tournament. GB again had a strong start with the Brits 1-1 against the Group Favorites DPR Korea in their first game. Korea struck back with two 2nd period goals but despite a fightback by GB, the game ended up 4-2 to the Asian side.

Australia were next up for GB and we're comfortably dispatched by seven goals to one, and GB finally defeated Holland in a competitive game, 11 years after their first attempt with a comfortable 5-2 victory. GB again finish 2nd out of 4 teams in their group.

Belgium, who finished 2nd in the other Group took on GB in the 3rd/4th place playoff. GB, comfortably dispatch the Belgians by 8 goals to 1 which saw GB ranked overall 3rd out of 8 teams.

Pool B overnight was renamed Division 1, but apart from that the challenge stayed the same for GB with their third straight attempt at Qualification into the 2nd tier.

GB looked to their first game against hosts Slovenia to set the standard for the tournament and they did not disappoint. 5-0 up after 20 minutes they went onto win 12-0. Hungary also fell to a GB by 12 goals to 0 the in Game Two, and with GB dispatching the Aussies by 4-2 in Game 3 they were left in the pleasant situation of Played 3, Won 3, Scored 28, Conceded 2.

Slovakia who were Group favourites took on GB in the final game. Slovakia just were too good for Team GB, who despite getting a goal back in the 3rd, went down to a 4-1 defeat and finished 2nd in their group for the 3rd consecutive year.

Off to Italy for Division 2, which now sported 6 teams in direct parity with the Men's game for the first time.

GB collapsed to the worst possible start against long time foes Slovakia, 5-0 down after the 1st period they ended up losing 8-1 to the Eastern Bloc side. Game 2 against group favourites Norway was just as tough for the Brits along a spirited performance saw them just 1-0 down after the first GB collapsed to an 8-3 defat.

Game 3 against Denmark saw a pulsating clash from end to end which saw GB register their first points with a 4-4 draw, however after leading the Danes 1-0 at the end of the 1st. The Netherlands, a long term bogey team of the Brits skated to a 4-2 win over GB. GB's final game against Italy proved too much for them and they were defeated as they were the previous year to an experienced Italian side, this time 4-2.

And so GB were relegated. Or so we thought. GB however had the dubious honour of being saved by a life-threatening disease, as due to the SARS pandemic in China the World Championships were cancelled for that year and the IIHF didn't relegate any teams from any divisions.

From a standings point of view, the 2004 saw GB's worst ever performance from International Ice Hockey, with defeats to Denmark, Italy, Slovakia, the Netherlands and Australia.

However, when your team is washed out a goal on a wraparound due to the referee 'losing sight of the puck' as it went round the net, there isn't much you can do. GB battled desperately hard under the some of the worst refereeing ever seen in an international competition.

Division III was the setting for GB. GB started off the tournament in impressive fashion easily dispatching Hungary 5-0 followed by an 11-0 demolition of Belgium.

GB's minds were however firmly planted on the 3rd game, without a doubt the title decider. GB went a goal down at 26:56 before Newcastle's Teresa Lewis opened the account for GB on the half hour mark.

With the scores neatly tied at 1 heading into the final period, GB battled hard. University of New Hampshire's Angela Taylor picked up a penalty for highsticking at 47:39, and with eight seconds left in the game heartbreak as Slovenia took the lead. GB were never able to get back in the game and ended losing 4-1 with the final goal placed into the empty net.

Game 4, saw GB take out their frustrations of the previous game with a 19-0 victory over South Africa, who were saved relegation by the IIHF Women's Committee as they expanded the Elite competition to 9 teams, and thus no teams were relegated this time around.

Game 5, saw GB finally lay the ghost of a year ago with an excellent 6-2 victory over Australia to ensure GB's 2nd place finish.